The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7384 p61
21 January 2006

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Do not e-mail MUR forms to doctors, says the PSNC

Pharmacists should not e-mail medicines use review forms to GPs. This recommendation comes from the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee this week.

“To ensure the confidentiality of data we would advise contractors to wait for guidance to be issued before putting in place arrangements for sending MUR forms by e-mail,” the PSNC said. “A short-term alternative to e-mail would be for electronic copies of MUR forms to be saved to a CD-ROM or other memory device, such as a USB memory stick, and then taken to the GP surgery.”

Ensuring that most pharmacies provide MURs for their regular patients is a key part of the PSNC’s plan for 2006, which was approved at the committee’s January meeting.

“For some pharmacies the requirements for accreditation and premises changes have meant that introducing MURs in year one [of the new community pharmacy contract] was not a top priority,” Sue Sharpe, PSNC’s chief executive, told The Journal. “The potential rewards will increase as the ceiling on numbers increases, so we need to work to ensure that the right incentives are there.”

The PSNC’s 2006 plan says that the PSNC will analyse the experiences of early implementers and investigate the impediments and disincentives that have been identified by pharmacies that are not yet planning to introduce MURs. It will also ensure that MURs are adequately funded and promoted to the public and NHS stakeholders, the PSNC said.